THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 323 



siring most complete descriptions, accounts of habits, 

 distribution, etc., I would recommend the " Life Histories 

 of African Animals,^' by Roosevelt and Heller. The notes 

 appended to the species in the following list must be con- 

 sidered only as supplemental to the information to be 

 obtained from the above volume. 



I. The Lion {felis leo). — The lion seems not to occur or 

 to be very unusual in the Wasonzi bench; although the 

 Wasonzi report him as very numerous on the plains or 

 high plateaus of Ssale just south. From Oliondo to Wal- 

 ioba's country I should consider them about normally 

 abundant; in other words, they can be heard every night, 

 and occasionally one can be seen. The country is a diffi- 

 cult one in which to hunt them, owing to the continuity of 

 the cover; but from a permanent camp a man should be 

 fairly sure of his quarry. The male lions I saw in this 

 country carried very fine manes. This seems to me a 

 little remarkable, both because of the heat and the thorny 

 nature of the bush. Theoretically, heavy manes should 

 occur in high, cold altitudes and open country. Thorns 

 have always been considered an important reason why the 

 mane of a wild lion is less thick and heavy than that of 

 menagerie specimens. Since the journal that makes the 

 body of this book has been put into type, I have received a 

 letter from Mr. Leshe Simpson, who went into the New 

 Country on my advice and information. He swung down 

 to the Serengetti, which he reports an open grass plain with 

 many ravines and small stony hills. An abundance of 

 game makes this an ideal habitat for lions; and in fact he 

 reports an abundance of them there. He also remarks on 



